FA Premiership
Tue 3rd March 2009 @ 8pm (Anfield)
Liverpool returned to winning ways with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Sunderland tonight at Anfield. David N’Gog and Yossi Benayoun grabbed the goals that helped Liverpool to three more points.
The reds returned to a 4-4-2 formation to make way for the injuries running through the side and Mascherano moved to right back, after his display towards the end of the Boro game there. Skrtel re-joined Carragher in the centre of defence and there was a very welcome return for Emiliano Insua to left back, a position he had begun to make his own prior to his departure for the South American Championships.
Gerrard was passed fit to start and Yossi Benayoun, the reds hero in Madrid, rightly returned to the side. Up front Kuyt and N’Gog were the striking partners.
Despite the confidence of the victory in the end, the reds started shakily and Kenwyn Jones should have had an early goal after racing away from Skrtel. The huge Kop goal must have seen tiny as he raced down on it and failed to convert his chance, when Reina chose the correct side to dive and saved the shot.
The reds began to control the play but were guilty of running down blind alleys and some sloppy passing as Sunderland got all their men behind the ball. Benayoun was the pick of the bunch, his trickery helping him weave through the Sunderland defence but the final killer ball never got through the crowd of away players.
As half time arrived tensions started to build.
In the second half the reds were a different proposition and when Riera’s cross was brought down by Gerrard, David N’Gog was on hand to score his first Premiership strike. It was well deserved from the player who had often been the one picking up the ball from the midfield and driving forward. After the goal, the reds played with more freedom and it wasn’t long before the second arrived. N’Gog was on hand again when his overhead flick was palmed away by the keeper, only for Yossi Benayoun to score another goal this campaign.
All in all a good Liverpool victory and a vital three points.
Team News
Liverpool: Reina, Mascherano, Skrtel, Carragher, Insua, Benayoun (El Zhar 90), Gerrard (Babel 82), Alonso, Riera, Kuyt, Ngog (Lucas 70).
Subs Not Used: Cavalieri, Dossena, Hyypia, Aurelio.
Booked: Ngog.
Goals: Ngog 52, Benayoun 65.
Sunderland: Fulop, Ben-Haim, Ferdinand, Collins, McCartney, Malbranque (Edwards 81), Whitehead, Reid, Leadbitter (Cisse 62), Richardson, Jones (Murphy 76).
Subs Not Used: Gordon, Bardsley, Davenport, Healy.
Booked: Whitehead.
Att: 41,587
Ref: Mark Halsey (Lancashire).
I agree with Shane B, this team cannot compete with Ronaldo, Rooney and Berbatov.
But impressed with Ngog, hoped he does not turn out to be like Le Tallec.
I’m sorry lads I can’t beleive what I’m reading here.Have our standards slipped so much that we now celebrate a 2-0 win over Sunderland.I mean come on its Sunderland.We’re Liverpool Football Club, we should be hammering teams like this especially at Anfield.Its high time we admitted a few truths here.We are never going to win the premiership title with players like Ngog,Insua,Benayoun,Kuyt,Cavalieri,Dossena and Aurelio.And don’t even get me started on Lucas.These types of players are sub-standard.They wouldn’t have made our reserve team back in the 1980’s and you know it.Lets just admit it here and now that its time we had a change of management.Rafa has lost his way and enough is enough.I want to see our team play with flare and confidence.Thats how we built our reputation across Europe.
I also agree with culcul & hyypiaking, but the game that it so much important to me is the match against man united i know Rafa’s army will disgrace them.
Insua! Finally a world class (possibly) left back for the future!
I absolutely agree with CulCul, it was good that we played two forwards and David Ngog played very well considering the pressure that was on him in his first home league start. He reminds alot of Babel coz hes got alot of tricks and he also looks similar. Hes really young aswell, so that goal will have a massive impact on his confidence. The other goalscorer, Benayoun, is proving to be a big player for Liverpool, which is a big turnaround from the autumn when he was saying that if he didnt get more chances to play then hed leave in January. Im pleased Rafa is playing him coz he is very skillful and brings something different to our game.
good result but all a little to late if you ask me and lets face it sunderland are no great team we should be beating these type of teams with ease week in week out. I still think Rafa needs to go so we can get a manager in that ecourages attacking football,liverpool are to cautious which is great when it comes to defending but we need a manager who ecourages free flowing attacking football cause goals win games at the end of the day and we just dont score enough of them
Can i say how impressed i was with Ngogs performance last night. I have been vocal in how bad i thought he was but something in his game last night tells me he could be a good prospect. It was great to see 2 x upfront and attacking football
Well we huffed and puffed but like usual were unable to make something happen in the first half so why don’t we start playing 45 minute games!!?
It helped that they missed a sitter then we finally put two past the mighty Sunderland who everyone fears!!. The league has gone but perhaps we can finish second not that i’ll be celebrating over it or nothing.
This was a solid performance. More like what we want to see. A nice reasonably attack minded 4-4-2 formation from the start. There’s nothing wrong with playing more defensive after weve already got a two goal lead. Although it would be nice to see Liverpool completely steamroller teams every now and then, which would help our goal difference because it looks as though that could be important between us and Chelsea for second place. However, a good preformance to put the team in a good mood and we’ve now got a whole week to prepare for the Real Madrid game next week.